I took mine up about 20 times and I think it's a good plane, of course I remove the speed breaks. and fly without the flaps other than on calm days I may use them, and about the orientation your right on I experience the same thing as you did, and I thought it was a goner , hard to tell if it went inverted or not from some distance, I hate to change the color scheme. mostly because it's not a big plane and too much the same colors. I don't know if I would call this one a first trainer, hard to tell since I started with a high wing. I would like to hear from someone who started flying with the P51 as a trainer.

roltech